Technical glitches force reruns

Technical glitches force reruns

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Delayed elections were held in some areas of the country on
Tuesday after poll equipment was made available there, while in
many other areas repeated elections proceeded without a hitch.

It was reported earlier that only some isolated areas of
Papua, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and East Nusa Tenggara had to
delay voting scheduled for April 5.

But it turned out on Tuesday that several regions of Java and
other islands were also forced to rerun voting.

In East Java, at least eight regencies and towns -- Surabaya,
Sidoarjo, Gresik, Lamongan, Tuban, Sumenep, Pasuruan and
Situbondo -- conducted revotes and almost 20 percent of eligible
voters exercised their political rights.

"Based on a report received by the East Java Elections
Commission (KPUD), as many as eight cities held fresh voting,"
KPUD member Arief Budiman said.

He said the elections were rerun after ballot papers were
accidentally interchanged with those of other districts.

Except for Sumenep on Madura island, revotes were held because
the number of punched ballot papers was more than that of
registered voters, he added.

However, the rerun failed to attract voters as it took place
on a working day. "Like in Sudimoro village, Tulangan
subdistrict, Sidoarjo, only 80 percent of illegible voters
attended the polling station," Arief said.

Similar reruns also took place at some 35 polling stations in
nine regencies across Central Java, including Brebes and
Boyolali, Surakarta and Karanganyar.

Voters there only elected local legislative candidates, as
their votes for candidates for the Regional Representatives
Council (DPD) and the House of Representatives (DPR) on Monday
were considered valid.

Central Java's KPUD member Hasyim Asy'ari said that the 35
polling booths were among 85,775 others in the province.

In Yogyakarta, the disruption of the delivery of ballot papers
forced the relevant authorities to rerun elections at a number of
polling stations.

However, Yogyakarta's General Election Supervisory Committee
(Panwaslu) member Marzuki could not say which polling stations
had to hold revotes.

"Give us the chance to recapitulate all this. We will be able
to determine by Thursday which areas will, or have, rerun
elections," he said.

Local KPUD chairman Suparman Marzuki said officials of polling
stations had the right to determine the dates of rerun elections.
"It depends on whether they are prepared or not," he added.

According to him, rerun elections must be held before April 25
at the latest. "Based on prevailing rules, revotes can be
conducted 20 days after election day at the latest," Suparman
argued.

But, the central KPU issued a decree on Tuesday, allowing
regions only until April 9 to rerun elections so that delays to
vote counting could be avoided. .

Deputy KPU chairman Ramlan Surbakti said reruns should be held
as soon as possible because the results of the elections must
reach his office between April 11 and April 14.

In Riau, reruns were also organized in the regencies of Rokan
Hilir, Indragiri Hilir and Kota Dumai, where voters only cast
ballots for local legislative councils.

"In Monday's elections, voters punched the names of
legislative candidates (on the wrong ballot papers), although
they did not recognize them. But later, ahead of the vote
counting, election officials found out that those names did not
appear on the tabulation forms," Riau's KPUD member Alwis told
The Jakarta Post.

Similar reruns are planned for Wednesday in Serdang Bedagai
and Tanjung Balai regencies in North Sumatra, after local
political party leaders agreed on the date.

However, Medan, Labuhan Batu and Deli Serdang regencies
canceled plans to hold revotes following the agreement of party
leaders.

In West Nusa Tenggara, revotes will take place on Thursday at
five polling stations in Central Lombok regency, while six other
polling stations were yet to decide when to rerun elections.

Meanwhile, at least 27 polling stations in the regencies of
West Sumba, Ngada and North Central Timor in East Nusa Tenggara
(NTT) held delayed elections on Tuesday after they finally
received ballot papers.

In Manggarai regency, 20 other polling stations also conducted
delayed elections on Monday night.

Like NTT, troubled areas of Papua and Aceh are to hold delayed
voting in isolated areas, where the delivery of election
materials was hampered.